The Machine Tool Group of Cincinnati Milacron, Cincinnati, Ohio, takes a unique approach to design engineering. It's called the Wolfpack, a system of concurrent engineering by which the firm's engineers, partnering with its parts suppliers, hunt as a team for new technologies that will compress lead time and speed a product to market ahead of the competition.
Earlier this year, Jim Cook, one of Milacron's Wolfpack project managers, was perusing an article on using rapid prototyping in parts development when he came across an interesting factÑ only 4% of all rapid prototyping applications involve sand castings. "I saw an opportunity there to accelerate sand casting development," Cook said. The firm gathered information on the various systems and began to look for a way to test them out. "Rapid prototyping was a buzzword, and we weren't all that familiar with it," said Charlie Martin, senior buyer-materials, "but we were looking for a better way."
Two of Milacron's casting suppliers each had invested in a different rapid prototyping system. One foundry had purchased a Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM) system from Helisys, Torrance, California, in which a prototype part is built layer by layer using a type of laminated paper. When finished the prototype has a look and feel very similar to wood.
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The other supplier, Cast-Fab Technologies, Inc., is also located in Cincinnati. The gray and ductile iron foundry and pattern shop was using a CIS CM 1005 five-axis lightweight machining center with a work envelope of 120 x 60 x 30 in. to machine patterns to specific "Pattern old skill a lot of par~ probably bro, cations transmitted directly from CAD data. Milacron engineers knew that each process had its advantages and drawbacks, and decided to stage a contest between the two foundries to see which one could deliver a newly designed part in the shortest time.
The part selected was a 125-lb gray iron Z-axis housing for a machine tool. "The object was to challenge each of them to use the technology to provide us a finished casting in the least possible time," Cook said. "The winner would be awarded the production part."
Milacron approached both foundries about the competition, and rules were agreed upon by the three parties. Milacron's designers would simultaneously send to each competitor a data tape containing a computer model of the partÑno prints would be submitted. What the foundries did after that was up to them. The pattern could be loose or mounted, and the casting itself, while not necessarily perfect (Cook said the design might subsequently change anyway), needed to be an accurate, usable prototype. Speed was the object.
Thursday morning, June 13, was selected as the kickoff time, and Cast-Fab's personnel prepared accordingly. "We went ahead and discussed the competition with all the concerned departments, letting them know what was expected," said Pat Magee, Cast-Fab's foundry engineering manager. What followed for Cast-Fab was a triumph of technology and teamwork. Iking is an rd it has a figms that 2eed to be
At the Starting Gate
8 a.m., Thursday - Everything is ready for the competition, and Cast-Fab receives the file on schedule. Then a problem becomes apparent. Their hardware can't read the file |
